The real-life teacher who helped inspire that character has been teaching literature at UConn since 1978. Sam Pickering told us that he doesn’t really think much about the movie. He told us that he “only saw it once” and even missed parts of it.

There’s no mistaking Sam Pickering when you meet him and even the famously high-strung Williams would have a hard time keeping up with his rapid-fire, stream of conciousness style. He came to our studios for an interview, which is something he rarely does, e prefers email...to talk about teaching, his time in the Middle East and the school where he’s taught for more than 30 years.